Hermes 3 70B Instruct vs Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) vs solar-mini
solar-mini comes out ahead, 50 to 32 and 27 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Nous ResearchHermes 3 70B Instruct
32/100- ECI—
- Price$0.70 / $0.70
- Context131K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen Plus Character (Japanese)
27/100- ECI—
- Price$0.50 / $1.40
- Context8K
- Our pick
Upstagesolar-mini
50/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context33K
solar-mini is our pick
solar-mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Hermes 3 70B Instruct (32) and Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) (27). It leads on price and inputs & features. Hermes 3 70B Instruct wins on context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest pricesolar-minisolar-mini $0.15 · Hermes 3 70B Instruct $0.70 · Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) $0.725 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextHermes 3 70B InstructHermes 3 70B Instruct 131,072 · solar-mini 32,768 · Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) 8,192 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsHermes 3 70B Instruct: Text · Qwen Plus Character (Japanese): Text · solar-mini: Text
- Self-hostingHermes 3 70B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Hermes 3 70B Instruct | Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) | solar-mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 55 | 54 | 85 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 0 | 0 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 32/100 | 27/100 | 50/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Hermes 3 70B InstructNous Research | Qwen Plus Character (Japanese)Alibaba (Qwen) | solar-miniUpstage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.70 | $0.50 | $0.15 (best) |
| Output | $0.70 | $1.40 | $0.15 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.70 | $0.725 | $0.15 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 5 providers | Official Alibaba API | Official Upstage API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens | 32,768 tokens |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens (best) | 512 tokens | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | No | No | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | qwen-plus-character-ja | solar-mini |
| API providers | 5 (best) | 1 | 1 |
| Released | Aug 18, 2024 | Jan 2024 | Jun 12, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Dec 31, 2023 | Apr 2024 | Sep 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Hermes 3 70B Instruct$8.40
- Qwen Plus Character (Japanese)$7.80
- solar-mini$1.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Hermes 3 70B Instruct, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) or solar-mini?
solar-mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Hermes 3 70B Instruct (32) and Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) (27). It leads on price and inputs & features. Hermes 3 70B Instruct wins on context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Hermes 3 70B Instruct, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) or solar-mini?
solar-mini is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (official Upstage API price). Hermes 3 70B Instruct costs $0.70 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers); Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) costs $0.50 input / $1.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for solar-mini versus $0.70 for Hermes 3 70B Instruct (4.7× as much) and $0.725 for Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) (4.8× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Hermes 3 70B Instruct has not been scored yet, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) has not been scored yet and solar-mini has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Hermes 3 70B Instruct, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) and solar-mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Hermes 3 70B Instruct and Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Hermes 3 70B Instruct has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 32,768 for solar-mini and 8,192 for Qwen Plus Character (Japanese). Maximum output per response: Hermes 3 70B Instruct up to 16,384, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) up to 512, solar-mini up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Hermes 3 70B Instruct accepts text; Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) accepts text; solar-mini accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Hermes 3 70B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) and solar-mini is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Hermes 3 70B Instruct is the newest, released Aug 18, 2024. solar-mini came out Jun 12, 2024; Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) came out Jan 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Hermes 3 70B Instruct Dec 31, 2023, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) Apr 2024, solar-mini Sep 2024.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Nov 2, 2026.
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